SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: WET LEG – WET LEG

Wet Leg
Wet Leg
Domino Records

Wet Leg has made quite the splash since they released their first single “Chaise Lounge” in 2021. Love them or hate them they’ve been in the airwaves and music lovers’ conversations. Fusing indie rock and post-punk revivalism with light guitar and drum work, the duo, comprised of Rhian Teasdale and Hester Chambers, will keep you on your toes.

Who are they? The two first met at college, on the Isle of Wight at the age of 17. On the verge of giving up music, Teasdale decided to follow through with festival dates she had already agreed to as a solo act asking Chambers to play guitar with her. ‘We’d played in other bands before, but always with boys, and my experience of that was that boys always know what they want. Playing with Hester was different. We just gave each other so much space,’ she explains.

Fast forward to 2022, the two have entered the indie music scene with a vengeance, leaving little to the imagination with witty and satirical lyrics on their self-titled album Wet Leg. Teasdale told Rolling Stone, ‘It came out of that 13-year-old girl sleepover head space.’ Making it feel like you’re eavesdropping on the juiciest gossip. Seemly surface level, you can leave it there, but listen a little harder and you’ll see there’s a lot more going on. Though the album can be coined as ‘fun’, it takes a look at societal pressures, sex, romance, and women taking back their power while also being conscious of taking care of oneself.

The earliest singles stand out on the album with “Chaise Lounge” taking you through the bored mind and post-grad malice while “Wet Dream” takes you through a fictional sex dream inspired by a time Teasdale’s ex called her to say he had a dream about her. With lyrics like ‘Baby do you wanna come home with me?/I got Buffalo 66 on DVD.’ and ‘You say you think about me in the midnight hour/I know that you’re just rubbing one out in the shower.’ Wet Leg proves they are funny and far from coy.

Before the album’s release, the band set the scene with four other singles which created an anticipated punk sound that the album as a whole did not necessarily carry consistently. In “Oh No” we can hear Meg White style drums and sunburnt guitar tones and later in “Supermarket” we hear Weezer style vocals. You could argue this makes them seem inexperienced, but I’d argue it keeps things interesting and shows they are willing to experiment. The majority of the album was produced by Dan Carey who’s worked with the likes of Franz Ferdinand and Tame Impala and his talent shines on this piece. While the general listening of the album was pleasant, there’s room for Wet Leg to bring something even better, fuller, and vocally rich to the scene.

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